What do you miss about the glory days of DVD collecting?

Was thinking about this the other day. What do you miss the most about the glory days of DVD collecting? Was it Anchor Bay releasing special editions of cult movies? Was it the Deepdiscount 15% off sales? Was it being able to buy complete season sets of TV shows right after they aired?

For me it was all about going to Wal-Mart on a Friday to check out the new releases that came out on Tuesday, purchasing one and then stopping at Taco Bell to get something to eat. That was my Friday routine for close to two years.

For me it was fun researching which country had the best release of a certain movie I wanted (comparing transfer qualities, extras, etc.) and then ordering it, often from international sites. Now I couldn't give two fucks and don't why I wasted the time and money on that.

Not much, except the 800.com 3-for-$1 days and the Reel.com coupons. Those got my collection off to a (mostly) free start. But the quality of those old releases was extremely poor compared to what we've been spoiled with in today's wonderful 1080p presentations. So, my main regret is that I spend so much on old 480i and 480p releases which have since been re-released in definitive versions.

One other thing which I'm *so* glad I did was that I was able to sell off a large number of OOP horror and sci-fi DVDs at a huge profit back in the days when the money was good, so I was able to recoup part of my large investment in those (inferior) DVDs.

Number one thing I miss is browsing huge aisles of dvds at stores that actually had interesting inventories. Not just shelves full of recent blockbusters. I live near to where DVDplanet had a brick and mortar store. That place was amazing, and cheap.

I had fun collecting, but I don't really miss anything about it. I look at my dusty, unused and slowly shrinking collection with regret now. Wish I had spent the money on travel or at the very least dumped it into my 401(k).

Not too much. What I miss more are video rental stores (good independent ones with great selections). Which sort of ties in, since they would often sell off big titles cheap when their shelf life had diminished, and then everything when they went out of business. At those times I went a little blood-simple ...

1) Going out to the city late at night searching for discs and deals
2) Reel.com coupons and sales
3) 800.com sales

But one thing I will never forget in regards to DVD is how Stevevt went out of his way to get me Little Shop Of Horrors 1986 Edition that was OOP and going for $250 on ebay. He sold me the title at retail price instead.

Going to Fry's Electronics and seeing multiple aisles of DVD's, and they had everything from mainstream releases to foreign films, Criterions, just all kinds of movies.
I also liked the Special Editions of particular DVDs. You were getting something real special, with a booklet, usually two-discs, and often times great cover art. The Terminator Special Edition was one of my favorites. The menu screen is so great.

Unfortunately, with streaming becoming so mainstream, even I don't like buying that much physical media anymore. I feel like I'm wasting money and space on a DVD when I can usually see it on Netflix or rent it on Amazon.
That said, most of the movies I want to see are not available in these formats, and they're out-of-print on DVD.
Dammit!!!

Helter Skelter (2012) and Days of Being Wild are movies I want to see but can't stream them.

^ there will come a time when you won't be able to watch your dvds anymore what im saying depending on ones age,and the way it connects with the wires to watch it on the screen your saying they'll keep up with all that so people can watch there dvds? 30, 40 50 years out? I don't know man. I guess third party companies will do it if anything in the future so ones dvd media disc could be played 100+ years I guess I just dont know

^ there will come a time when you won't be able to watch your dvds anymore what im saying depending on ones age,and the way it connects with the wires to watch it on the screen your saying they'll keep up with all that so people can watch there dvds? 30, 40 50 years out? I don't know man. I guess third party companies will do it if anything in the future so ones dvd media disc could be played 100+ years I guess I just dont know

There was a time I really started having fun going to used record stores that had a used DVD inventory and finding OOP titles and Criterion’s for cheap. Of course I was still a 20 something kid who lived alone in an apartment and was going to college so even a $4 Criterion still broke the bank sometimes.

I liked getting nice boxed sets. The ones with full-sized keepcases were too large, but the ones with five or six thinpaks were great. And the individual paks meant you could lend out a disc or take one on vacation easily.

And yeah, most of my purchases are digital these days, and I like the convenience and space-saving, but it's not quite as satisfying.